glish is

» Here's a puzzle I can't solve. Any of you DHTML whizzes care to take a whack at it? It's for PC IE 4 or 5 only; I have reduced these pages to only the code necessary to demonstrate the problem, so they will not work in Netscape. When I add the Netscape code back in, however, I find that NS handles it just fine. On to the puzzle:

On this page, where the the style of the little red square is declared as the style attribute of the DIV, the alert that pops up correctly displays the "top" attribute of the DIV's DOM object.

On this page, where the the style of the little red square is declared as a #style, the alert that pops up is empty.

I have never seen this problem before, where styles declared as an attribute are treated differently by the browser than styles declared in <STYLE> tags. Does anybody out there have an explanation?

» I find it interesting how much usability is being reported on these days. Take for example this story on the IBM.com redesign: IBM Site Revamp Shows Design Priorities.

» Extra! Extra! Flash advocate offers intelligent criticism on Flash! A Cancer on the Web called Flash:

The best way to combat the stereo-types that are developing is to be smarter about how we use Flash. Think about the problem that you are trying to solve before you open Flash and start working. Is Flash the only solution for that problem? Is Flash the most effective solution? Can you solve the problem with HTML? Think about the work you do and remember that what you put on the web is not for you, but for your visitors

» From CNET.com, SOAP will succeed where other technologies have failed:

SOAP will succeed where Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) and Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) have failed because it is simple, Internet-friendly, based on XML and is implementation-independent.

» O'Reilly Network: WAP Takes a Pounding

The attacks are a sudden twist of fate for the protocol that over the past nine months has been hyped as the foundation of the next phase of wireless communications -- specifically, enabling the wireless web.

» Do you enjoy DHTML? Another Joakim Borgstrom site: Nuevo Audi TT Roadster.

» Here is an article not worth the paper it is printed on: NetMechanic Says Netscape 6.0 Not Fully DHTML Compatible. And here is a Metafilter discussion about it.

» Taylor comments on a rant by dack about full-screen web sites:

I really don't think it's a problem. I actually think it's quite useful. Sometimes you want to bring the user out of their computer. Like when playing a game or something. You want an experience that isn't distracted by Excell spreadsheets or anything.

Who would argue with that? My own problem with full-screen sites is not that they are doing something they shouldn't do, but that they do not typically give adequate warning about what is going to happen. It breaks user expectations rather significantly to have all browser interface elements suddenly snatched away without warning, and I'm sure it creates a feeling of frustration in most users who are not aware of the keyboard shortcut to close a window. If you want to provide a full screen experience for users, I think you really need to explain how it works and how the user can exit.

» I am working on putting up some pictures taken over this past weekend with the new camera. Here's one of them: